adult

“Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing." -Hitchens

Being a full-time writer and frequent traveler often means one enjoys spirits—it helps free the mind for writing or eases a hard day from running around airports. And in this case, yours truly is a fan of Whiskey—scotch, bourbon, it doesn’t matter so long as you’re not putting Coke in it. Pansies.

Last night I purchased a nice bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask. For those connoisseurs in audience, air high-five. I tossed a lovely pic on Twitter and thus started an awesome stream of recommendations from the Twittosphere. Only one problem: true Scotch often has the original distillers name, which to my eyes (and ears) look like “Hey, you should really try Ddfjpshee Allt-Aphaig” or something.

Foreign tongues can be tough, so when someone really says that I should try anConc or Adelphi Fascadale (real names), I need a way to remember and categorize that. Enter in the app Whisky Bar.

So we've had trouble in the U.S. and Europe surrounding submission approval for apps, as well as flaws in the system which allow spam and useless apps to flood the Marketplace. We now turn to Japan where a social bookmarking app, Hatena Viewer, has been rejected due to links within the app pointing to 2ch/Futaba (Japanese 4chan equivalent).

Hatena Viewer is a Hatena Bookmark client, which shares the same functionality as Digg. AppHub stated the rejection reason as the following:

"It appears the application contains several articles linking to 2chan."

They really don't like anything 2ch, 4chan, etc.related, and this is what bothers the Japanese developers. Due to this type of app publishing user generated content, the developers can't control what is linked to or submitted. Also, what's more interesting, Hatena Bookmark for iOS is available without age restrictions (link below).

As well as the Hatena Viewer app being rejected, a 2ch viewer app was also turned down due to the following reason, provided by the Windows Phone Policy Team:

"Windows Marketplace does not currently support age restricted content. Therefore all content must be appropriate for users to the of 13. It has been determined that content from sources such as 2chan and 4chan are not allowed in the Marketplace.

While we cannot provide specific instruction to you as to how you can modify your application, we would recommend ensuring all content is appropriate for users to the age of 13 and the adult categories are removed."

Nanapho.jp sums it up pretty effectively:

Currently there's no mechanism in place on the Marketplace with regards to content with age requirements

All content must suit 13 year olds

2ch and 4chan's content is not permitted

Adapt to the age of 13 if you want to update all of the content within application, to remove the adult appeal

This is news that many of us have been waiting for, especially those who have children that own a Windows Phone and frequently play games. Microsoft has announced that they will be pairing with PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) to begin rating games on the Marketplace.

The age ranking will provide a clear indication to parents for better control over what games their children can download and/or play. Developers will be able to submit ratings for their titles via PEGI Express. Chris Lewis, VP IEB, Microsoft EMEA, had this to say:

"At Microsoft, providing parents with the tools to help keep their children safe online is a top priority, and we have made considerable investments in this area both in our Windows environment as well as on the Xbox 360. Given the fast growing popularity of mobile gaming amongst a younger age group, we felt that it was critical to apply those same rigorous standards to our Windows Phone devices as currently apply to Xbox and Games for Windows titles.

PEGI continues to play a crucial role in the interactive entertainment sector. As a founding member of PEGI, Microsoft continues its strong commitment to safe entertainment, by working together with PEGI to help developers rate their games quickly and effectively"

There's already a PEGI app available in the Marketplace (which came in the submission blitz), but it would be much more effective if ratings are displayed on game download pages within the Marketplace etc.

We're not gonna give this a full review due to the subject matter and going beyond the single image you see above is a bit difficult, but Devil-Y Software has manged to create a streaming app for the "adult site" Tube8. Ahem. Though we could be wrong, we're guessing this is the first full x-rated app for Windows Phone. So party balloons for everyone!

The app itself comes in two varieties: free, with ads and nothing else and a paid version with all the bells and whistles. So how much? How about $9.99 for no ads, faster loading, password protected, downloading of the videos and embedded video player. The shame? That's free. The software also seems tied to your device, not LiveID and of course you have to side-load it.

We'll just say that the app works. And that of course you'll never see it in the Marketplace. And that Microsoft is probably not thrilled with this post. And neither are my parents. But you're welcome anyways.

Move over Apple, you now have a friend in your quest to keep sexually suggestive material out of your app-store. In a hitherto unknown area of the Marketplace guidelines (PDF), Microsoft has outlined what kind of dirty smut won't be allowed in their Marketplace.

Some of the material is obvious, but some others are a bit more subjective, leaving us to wonder just how strict MS will be in enforcing these policies. We see Microsoft's point too--though perhaps they could have had a separate section in the marketplace?

We guess this means that Android will remain the sole proprietor of smut and cheezy "sexy Asian girl" apps (seriously, not making that up, the Android Marketplace is filled with it). Speaking of, if you haven't seen the 'Android phone is for porn' video, you owe yourself the laugh.